The failure of the scientific community in not continuing to pursue the goal of levitating increasingly large fauna can not be overstated. It’s 2023 and we’ve devoted untold billions to finding the Higgs boson, to landing and reusing orbital rockets, and yet, I can’t go on YouTube and find a video of a levitating giraffe. Sad.
A fun fact is that, if memory doesn't fool me, the levitating frog experiment was carried out by Micheal Berry and Andre Geim, and they were awarded the ignobel for it.<p>Berry is the same one of the Berry phase for which he received a ton of non-humorous awards, and Geim went on to discover graphene and receive a Nobel without the ig in front.
Ignoring the differences between LK-99 and the levitating frog is foolish. 1. The diamagnetism of LK-99 is more than ten thousand times that of the frog; 2. LK-99 only exhibits one-dimensional diamagnetism, whereas the frog has three-dimensional diamagnetism.
The researchers claim, to the reporter, that they could achieve the same with a person. Specifically, he said with “no problem” and “technically, we can do it with you without any problem.“<p>The blurb on the video, from the AP:<p>“
12 Apr 1997) English/Nat
British and Dutch scientists using a giant magnetic field have made a frog float in mid- air, and might even be able to do the same thing with a human being.
The team from Britain's University of Nottingham and the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands has also succeeded in levitating plants, grasshoppers and fish.
Scientists at the University of Nijmegen in Holland have managed to make a frog float six feet (approximately two metres) in the air - and they say the trick could easily be repeated with a human.
The secret is not magic but a powerful magnetic field which overcomes the force of gravity.
The field makes the frog's atoms generate a weak magnetic force in the opposite direction.
This causes it to be repelled in the same way as like poles of two magnets.
Plants, grasshoppers and fish have been levitated by the research team in the same way.
NASA, apparently, is extremely interested in the experiment in order to be able to test the effects of weightlessness on astronauts without having to put them into space.
Easy, says team leader Dr Andre Geim.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
There is no problem with putting a man by this magnetic levitation, to fly in the air. Technically we can do it with you without any problems.
SUPER CAPTION: Dr Andre Geim, Director of the High Field Magnetic Laboratory of the Catholic University of Nijmegen
And for those worried about the effects on the frog - don't worry.
He's not hopping mad - quite the opposite, in fact.<p>“
Came across this video in high school when I was doing research on portable MRIs for some club. Really shocked me that this was possible, always have been hopeful to see more research into magnetic fields and what they can do. I remember that superconducting was a challenge, but have read about breakthroughs using graphene since. Hopefully we get to see something in our lifetime